President Barack Obama’s lead over challenger Mitt Romney has narrowed to just two percentage points since the Republican’s strong performance in their first debate, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Friday.

In more bad news for Obama, one in five voters said the Democrat’s performance in the contest in Denver on Wednesday made them feel more negative about him and almost a third said they felt more positive about his Republican challenger…

Obama had led Romney by 6 percentage points in the poll released on Wednesday and the edge narrowed to five points – a 48-43 percent lead for Obama – in polling up to Thursday. That was the first including a day of interviews after the meeting in Denver…

More than 9 out of 10 registered voters – 91 percent – said they had seen, heard or read something about the debate, and 54 percent said they thought Romney had done a better job.

He gained three points in just the past 24 hours, in other words, as the news of Wednesday’s win rippled through the electorate. Rasmussen also saw some positive movement last night but says it’ll be Sunday before we know f it’s more than noise. The eeyorish take on all this is that it’s just a bounce, much like O’s post-convention surge, and will be tamped down in due time by today’s, ahem, “good” jobs report, the next debate, etc. The optimistic take — which I share in this case — is that Romney fundamentally changed public perceptions of himself by dominating a sitting president on national TV. The media’s pre-debate portrayal of him as essentially a lost cause was a real threat, especially since big-money donors were nearing the point of deciding whether to give up on the presidency and contribute to congressional races instead. All that’s changed now. Doesn’t mean he’ll be in the lead next week, but he did exactly what he needed to do to give himself a shot at victory.

Now then. Want to see a brutal political ad? Behold the power of silence.

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